Doug Brent named new chief operating officer of ICANN

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has appointed Doug Brent to the new position of chief operating officer after an extensive executive search.

This position is key to continuing to improve ICANN’s operational effectiveness.

ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet’s system of unique identifiers.

These include domain names (such as .org, .museum and country codes such as .UK) as well as the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols. Computers use these identifiers to reach each other over the Internet.

Careful management of these resources is vital to the Internet’s operation, so ICANN’s global stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet has ongoing security and stability.

Brent will be responsible for finance, human resources, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), administration, conferences and compliance as well as policy. He will be based in the Marina del Rey office.

He has a 25-year record of management and leadership in high technology companies in Silicon Valley.

Most recently, Brent was chief executive officer of Packet Design Incorporated, an innovator of network routing and traffic analysis solutions.

He led Packet Design from its inception through commercial deployment of its products in some of the largest carrier and enterprise networks in the world.

Prior to that, he was chief operating officer of Packet Design’s research company predecessor.

Before Packet Design, Brent was vice president of engineering and acting as chief executive officer at Andes Networks and vice president of engineering at Whistle Communications.

When IBM acquired Whistle, he joined IBM as general manager for small business services at its Global Small Business Division.